This article is taken from the special issue of the “Figaro”, “From east to west, living in Canada”, available on the Figaro Store.
Since 1867, education has been one of the exclusive jurisdictions of each of the 10 provinces and 3 territories that make up Canada. This is why several different educational systems coexist on Canadian soil, with an end age for compulsory schooling ranging from 16 to 18, depending on the province. But, on a national scale, Canada remains very well placed in the Pisa ranking, since in the latest version it landed 6th place on the criterion of overall skills of 15-year-olds.
The school year generally runs from the beginning of September to the end of June, with school holidays every 6 or 7 weeks. The week runs from Monday to Friday, Wednesday included, with days sometimes a little shorter than in France, ending at 3 or 4 p.m. Public and private schools coexist – public school is free and, depending on the province, compulsory schooling begins no later than the year of 5 or 6 years. A year of kindergarten, or preschool, which is not compulsory, is followed by 12 years of schooling, from 1st to 12th. Secondary begins in 9th – except in Quebec where secondary begins in 7th and ends in 11th. Primary therefore lasts 8 years in Canada, with the exception of Quebec, where it lasts 6 years.
At the end of high school, at the age of 17 or 18 on average, young Canadians who continue their studies enter a university, a college or even, in Quebec, a Cegep (college of general and vocational education). Quebec Cegeps offer two types of courses, with 2-year pre-university training, which prepares for entry to university, and 3-year technical training, more professionalizing, like our BTS and BUT. Canadian universities are divided between Anglophone and Francophone establishments (mainly in Quebec, but also in Ontario or New Brunswick).
The organization of higher education distinguishes between the first cycle (undergraduate studies) and the second cycle (postgraduate studies). In the first cycle, students prepare for the equivalent of the European licence, called a bachelor’s degree (baccalauréat in Quebec). The bachelor’s degrees at Canadian universities last 3 years, the Quebec baccalaureate 4 years. After their bachelor’s or baccalaureate, young Canadians can continue their studies with a master’s degree or a master’s degree, in 1 or 2 years, then a doctorate or a PHD, in 3 or 5 years.
Last particularity that strongly distinguishes the Canadian higher education system from the French system: there is no equivalent of our grandes écoles in Canada – the universities are the grandes écoles. Engineers, executives, lawyers, magistrates, doctors, journalists, etc. are all educated in universities. Similarly, future students are not selected by competition, but by file, on the basis of their academic results. Tuition fees in higher education are also much higher than in France; at 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000 euros per year for the most prestigious. Finally, according to the various international rankings, the 3 best universities in Canada are English-speaking: the University of Toronto (UofT), the University of British Columbia (UBC), in Vancouver, and McGill University in Montreal.
To find your way around the French-speaking and English-speaking Canadian higher education system, it is important to know the subtleties but also the vocabulary, which includes some false friends. Thus the Quebec “baccalaureate”, in 3 or 4 years, is the equivalent of the European license (1st university cycle), or the bachelor’s degree of English-speaking Canada. Similarly, the Quebec college prepares for the pre-university diplomas of the Cegeps, the diplomas of collegial studies (DEC), while the “colleges” of the English-speaking provinces welcome students after high school.
Summer camps organized in Canada are a good way to “test” the country before choosing to study there, in one of its most popular dimensions. The most well-known agency for this type of trip, Camp Canada, offers 8 to 10-week animator jobs in holiday camps. Registration costs 595 euros, which includes work permit, medical insurance, but not return flights; the salary received is 1600 to 1700 Canadian dollars (more or less 1500 euros) and comes with a visa that allows you to travel for 6 months in Canada.
Bilingualism partly explains the attraction that Quebec exerts on the French, but the price of higher education also plays a role: thus, a French student who registers for a bachelor’s degree in a Quebec university benefits from the same tuition rates as a Canadian student outside Quebec; better, from the master’s degree, the price is the same for Quebecers and the French.
From the start of the 2023 academic year, international students, including French nationals, who enroll in a study program in French in employment sectors identified as priorities by the Government of Quebec (information technology, engineering, health and social services, education, educational childcare services) will pay the same tuition fees as Quebec students, if they follow these programs in institutions in Quebec, located outside the Metropolitan Community of Montreal . A way of encouraging French students to discover establishments other than those of the Quebec metropolis.
